Would the real 'Annonymous' please step forward!

LOL, I had to laugh when I saw the comment from 'annonymous' yesterday! I thought that might happen sooner or later. Then Ms. Annonymous came back to post and say that "annonymous was ME", but it was still posted as annonymous, so I don't know who ME is :-) So, if you posted yesterday as 'annonymous' and you're reading this, could you please leave another comment and tell me who you are. You can click on 'other' and type your name in (you don't have to have a website) or you could type your name in the comment box (that would give me a BIG clue).

This morning I met my friend Cindy for coffee. I ate pretty well yesterday and didn't snack last night, but this morning I couldn't resist having a piece of gingerbread (with ginger frosting) along with my cappuccino from Starbucks! I will have a light lunch today, not sure what, and for dinner I'm doing steaks on the grill topped with gorgonzola butter (another of my Dream Dinners from the freezer), I shall just serve green beans with it, no carbs! If I keep on having smaller portions and not snacking much I think I may lose a pound or two, or at the very least maintain my weight throughout the holidays.

I popped in to Target after coffee and took back a dress I had bought Kristen last week. I got her two dresses for Christmas and asked her to chose one. This is the one she chose to keep. The top is velvet and the plaid is a satin-y kind of material. The one I took back was all velvet with no sleeves (I couldn't see it on Target's website so couldn't add a picture).

I want to go to church on Christmas Eve this year, so Kristen will wear this pretty dress then. Not sure what I'll wear. I often forget about getting myself something new and festive to wear, but I would like to try to do that this year.

Well, not much going on today. I'm just busy keeping the housework up to date, laundry is on and I'm about to go empty the dishwasher - so exciting!

Snack Attack!

For the past few nights I've been craving Chex mix! I don't know why, I normally don't buy this stuff, infact I never buy it. But all of a sudden I got it in to my head that I wanted to make some, like you see them do on the tv commercials at this time of year! So yesterday I looked on line for the 'original Chex mix recipe' (which you can find HERE) and I bought what I needed while I was out grocery shopping yesterday.

And voila, here it is - plus a few M&M's cos I like the sweet and salty taste together! This is really easy to make perfect for when you feel like snacking on something crunchy. I had no clue what was in the homemade version of this and was really surprised at the ingredients - worcestershire sauce, butter, onion powder and seasoned salt! But it all tastes super yummy once it's baked. I can't stop eating the stuff (which is not good when I'm trying to cut back and eat a bit more healthy!)

I had to force myself to go to the gym yesterday morning, but I'm glad I did. I hate to admit it but I haven't been in 3 weeks! And I knew if I didn't go first thing Monday morning, I would end up making excuses for every other day of the week too. That's how I got out of the habit in the first place.

I could really do with losing 10 pounds before Christmas (that's about how much I've put on since I was on the South Beach Diet this Summer) but I know it's not gonna happen. Not when I'm making snacks like this, that's for sure - and when I've signed up to make three dozen cookies for church in a couple of weeks! BUT, if I can just be sensible and eat small portions and snack just a teeny tiny bit.... well perhaps there won't be too much damage done (I'm hoping I don't gain any weight) and I will hopefully be more motivated to diet and exercise in January.

I always love the start of a new year - I'm always motivated to do just about anything. I like to start off the year thinking I'll eat healthy and exercise more. The fact that I don't usually get past January before I'm falling off the wagon (so to speak) doesn't put me off in the least ;-)

Always willing... always motivated..... roll on 2008!

Birthday Girl

Happy Birthday to our sweet little Princess. I thought I'd share a picture from her first birthday...

It’s annoying! When you send a party invite and specifically ask if you can RSVP by a certain date and yet you still don’t hear a thing from the person – how rude is that? Don’t people realize how difficult it is to plan things when you don’t know if half your guest will even show up. Am I supposed to just assume they won’t show if they didn’t rsvp?
I sent out 14 invites to Kristen’s friends for her birthday and 4 turned up today (they had rsvp’d I might add). That means 10 mom’s didn’t even bother to tell me their child would not attend! Actually, 2 moms said they would be there and never showed up!
Regardless of rude people – Kristen still had a wonderful day today. Grandma and Papa came over yesterday afternoon to give her her present (they thought they would forego the noisey kids party – can’t say I blame them)

Meet Ben! Kristen’s new puppy from Grandma and Papa. He knows her name and grows too! She loves him.

Boo's not so sure! (urmm, Boo's the one on the right ;-)

As seems the usual these days we didn't get many pictures! But here's just a couple from the party.

We bought Kristen a Nintendo Game that she had asked for and also a Video Camera. She’s been using my old digital camera lately which takes a few minutes of video. She likes to take movies of herself and Boo, and laugh at them as she plays them back. We thought she’d like her very own Video Camera – it’s called Vidster.

The party was at Inflatable Wonderland from 3pm – 5pm. We just served cake and Icecream to the kids after they’d run around for an hour, then we let them run around for another hour to burn off all the sugar energy. Kristen opened presents then we had to pack up and leave the ‘party area’. The two hours went by quickly, but I was glad to get home. I'm sad that not many other kids bothered to come, but glad that Kristen still enjoyed her day.

Rainy Day Saturday

Well as you can see I've moved my diary over to blogger. I think I will keep it here for a while as I like the more simple look to it. The backgrounds are easy to change so that will be fun to quickly add a new look whenever I want. I like that I don't have to add a ton of graphics for each season, and adding pictures is pretty easy too. To be honest I don't know why I didn't change over sooner. I have my knitting blog hosted at blogger.com too which I like posting to, so perhaps I will post more often - who knows. I'm still working on adding a few things to my sidebar but it looks pretty ok in here, don't ya think?

Today is a day for definitely staying home. It is pouring with rain outside and it's pretty cold. The coldest we've had I think. The high is supposed to only be 42, and I don't think it's even that yet. I did have to run out to the grocery store this morning to get Kristen's birthday cake for tomorrow and some individual icecream tubs and some kids juice boxes. I also bought some firewood so we could light a 'real' fire (instead of just a firelog) but it seems the wood is a little damp and isn't burning very well. Oh well, it sure does smell cozy though.

I do hope you can leave me a comment on here if you stop by. I'm hoping the comments work ok for you all, you don't have to register to use it or anything, so hopefully there won't be any problems.

Black Friday!

One place you WILL not find me today is in the stores! I’ve lived in the US for over 9 years now and NOT ONCE have I ever ventured out to the sales on Black Friday (as they call it). Jason put me totally off the idea the very first year we lived in Maryland when he told me how crowded the parking lots got and the Malls etc. I took his word for it and didn’t need to go see for myself. And over the years I’ve heard more horror stories about how crazy it is out there!These days the stores are opening earlier and earlier, which I think is just crazy. I usually spend this day putting our Christmas tree up, but over the past few years I’ve been pre-occupied with Kristen’s birthday and party preparations. Some years her birthday actually fell on Thanksgiving day so I would still put the tree up with her the next day. But this year, as you know her birthday is on Sunday, so I’m making today a kind of ‘rest’ day. I’m doing some laundry, and I’ve packed away the Fall decor but that’s all I’ll be doing.So, did you all have a good Thanksgiving Day? We had a wonderful time. I had invited my friend Brandi and her family. She came with her hubby, her Dad (who is visiting from Phoenix) and of course Kately, Kristen’s best friend at school, and her 4 yr old daughter Mackenzie. My inlaws were here too. I was so busy with all the cooking I didn’t even get my camera out But Brandi was taking some pictures so I might be able to get some off her later to show.